Christian/Catholic Mysticism

[Anonymous No.20204299]

Title says it all. Interested in learn about Christian or Catholic mysticism, particularly if it's from the middle ages.

I have zero priors about this so any and all recommendations are welcome.

[Anonymous No.20204331]

>>20204299
Parzival and Parsifal.

>Cosima: "he talks to me about this trait of the Grail mystery: that the blood becomes wine, so we, strengthened, can turn toward the earth, whereas the transformation of wine to blood draws us away from the earth."

[Anonymous No.20204346]

Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism is a great place to start. Arther Versluis' Platonic Mysticism: Contemplative Science, Philosophy, Literature, and Art is also short and easy.

[Anonymous No.20204347]

>>20204299
How am i supposed to fear a being with an ass on its face. Its like they weren't even trying

[Anonymous No.20204451]

>>20204299
Why does the demon's ass have a face on it?

[Anonymous No.20204456]

>>20204451
It's you

[Anonymous No.20204483]

>>20204451
The Devil was said to have a "Second face" and kissing it is how witches solidified their pact.

[Anonymous No.20204650]

just fast til you meet god bro

[Anonymous No.20204656]

>>20204650
Pretty sure that would count as suicide and I'd rather not join that forest, senpai

[Anonymous No.20204841]

>>20204299
>Christian/Catholic
>Christian or Catholic
Catholicism is true Christianity don't separate the terms, "Protestantism" is some shit made up by Luther and other schizos.

>Catholic Mysticism
The Gospel.
The Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila.

>particularly if it's from the middle ages.
The works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

>>20204331
If Wagner is a Christian, then Goethe is a Church Father and I'm fucking God.

[Anonymous No.20204919]

>>20204299
The Cloud of Unknowing

[Anonymous No.20204930]

>>20204841
>shit made up by Luther
Yes, but there's always Orthodox, which I'd put on par with Catholicism. Also, that's why I specified for the middle ages.

[Anonymous No.20204936]

>>20204919
which version?

[Anonymous No.20204968]

>>20204936
I can't help you there, since I didn't look into different versions. I read an online version which was in modern English. I don't remember how I found that, but possibly it was linked by another anon here.

[Anonymous No.20205246]

>>20204930
>Yes, but there's always Orthodox, which I'd put on par with Catholicism
Orthodox Christianity didn't produce theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas, god-tier Baroque art, charitable works all around the world, and baptized billions of people like Catholicism did.

[Anonymous No.20205252]

>>20205246
>baptized billions of people into a false pagan church
great work

[Anonymous No.20205259]

>>20205246
>charitable works all around the world
ah yes, the slave trade and native genocide

[Anonymous No.20205298]

>>20204299
The Golden Legend, a recopilatory book with stories on the lives of the saints, among them Saint Anthony and Saint Catherine.
There are certain type of texts in which rennaissance artists (ex. Bosch and Eyck) based their works, but I don't remember their name right now. They were wrote in monasteries and had some cool illustrations depicting daily medieval live with elements of "dude sinning le bad" and what not

[Anonymous No.20205300]

Read Jakob Boehme, first German philospher who was also a brilliant Christian Mystic.

[Anonymous No.20205326]

>>20205300
What about Eckhart, Tauler, Ruysbroeck?

[Anonymous No.20205345]

>>20204841
Wow, can't believe I'm meeting God!

>To us Equality is only thinkable as based upon a universal moral concord, such as we can but deem true Christianity elect to bring about; and that only on the subsoil of a true, but no mere "rational" Morality (as I lately saw desired by a philologist), can a true æsthetic Art bear fruit, the life and sufferings of all great seers and artists of the past proclaim aloud.

[Anonymous No.20205661]

reading about mysticism is like reading about sex. its an impoverished approximation of the real thing that u will still have little inkling of. take some magic mushrooms and u will know what the mystics know firsthand

[Anonymous No.20206431]

San Juan de la Cruz.

[Anonymous No.20206450]

>>20205246
*destroys its own liturgy, molests kids and protects the pedos, and generally advocates for a morality identical to globohomo*

[Anonymous No.20206470]

>>20204299
>Christian "or" catholic
based

[Anonymous No.20206483]

>>20205661
Hallucinogens are 99% of the time just pseudo spirituality which dazzle the senses.

People should only be allowed to take them after practicing mysticism for years.

[Anonymous No.20206625]

meister eckhart

[Anonymous No.20206630]

>>20204650
when i fast i do feel spiritually elevated. i know a lot of it is probably illusory and just because my body is hopped up on cortisol, but it feels like the veil between the physical and the spiritual is much lighter. the world is more vivid, i get lost in prayer more easily, etc

[Anonymous No.20206843]

>>20204347
I bet if you saw that thing coming at you in real life and your weapons had no effect you would be pretty shit scared.

[Anonymous No.20206877]

Not sure if medieval hagiographic literature would be considered on topic but I made a thread yesterday and it got zero replies so I figured I’d ask here; can anyone recommend a good version / translation of the Golden Legend?

[Anonymous No.20206910]

[Anonymous No.20206922]

>>20204650
>>20204656
>>20206630
Fasting is unironically beneficial for spiritual enlightenment, all the sages throughout the ages knew this
https://twitter.com/schizotime_/status/1511476006611267588

[Anonymous No.20207604]

>>20206922
>gorillas eat nothing but plants, so why are they so massive?
so THIS is the power of twitter logic

[Anonymous No.20208285]

>>20204331
Arthurian legend is definitely pre-Christian.

[Anonymous No.20208297]

>>20206922
worms? seriously? what the fuck man.

[Anonymous No.20208298]

>>20205259
Christians were the first to end slavery you fucking drooling retard. I wish they hadn't. Natives died mostly from diseases and half of them fought with the Whites. Back to r3ddit with your college sjw takes.

[Anonymous No.20208305]

>>20206483
Yes

[Anonymous No.20208312]

>>20206922
Asceticism is how you obtain spiritual powers and transcendent states. It is like a law.

[Anonymous No.20209135]

>>20205246
>>20204841
God christlarpers are such an ugly stain on humanity.

[Anonymous No.20209157]

>>20204841
Luther was based
Post nose

[Anonymous No.20209164]

>>20205246
Read some books instead of playing Sid Meier's Civilization

[Anonymous No.20209434]

>>20209157
>democratizing Christianity
>liberalism grew explicitly out of protestant thinking
Good joke

[Anonymous No.20209676]

>>20208285
Prove it.

[Anonymous No.20209689]

>>20205246
How's that Vatican II thing working out for you, what with destroying your own traditions and all that spiritual innovation. ecumenism polluting the Vatican with literal Amazonian idols, and the like.

[Anonymous No.20210795]

>>20204331
That's not particularly mystical, lol. Basically asserting belief in transubstantiation and that drinking wine is bad. It's poetic but that's about it

>>20204347
We are not meant to fear demons but to scorn them and most of all to love Christ

>>20204451
Symbolic of how sin gets everything backwards. Evil cannot create, it can only destroy. On the surface it seems stupid and silly but that is a poetic way of expressing the reality of evil, its fundamental ugliness and nothingness

[Anonymous No.20210802]

>>20206630
prayer fasting and almsgiving are the three main acts of the Christian life (I think)

>>20204299
The Cloud of Unknowing (early medieval I think), works by St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila.

Those are the big western mystics as far as I know. If you look up those proclaimed to be Church doctors you'll probably find quite a few. But shouldn't that tide you over?

There's actually some introduction to mysticism out there which was very exhaustively researched. I downloaded it but to be quite honest I feel it was a mistake of cheek on my part. I have scarcely begun to walk with Christ, it is far too soon to fly.

[Anonymous No.20210810]

I'm about to start reading The Way of Perfection. Really excited about it. Saint Teresa is one of my favorite saints, and I think God sent her into my life to be a spiritual instructor.

[Anonymous No.20210817]

>>20210810
Why are you excited? I don't have anyone to discuss this with. Such things fill me with dread. I am frightened by a word like perfection. For me, that word is full of pain and terror. I don't know where people find such a deep joy that they take delight in such things. I am not trying to lead you astray but to find what it is which you have which I don't which makes you behave differently than I do.

[Anonymous No.20210882]

>>20210795
>That's not particularly mystical, lol. Basically asserting belief in transubstantiation and that drinking wine is bad.
You are unbelievably retarded.

[Anonymous No.20210914]

>>20210882
What does it mean, then?

[Anonymous No.20210917]

>>20210817
Because perfection is the way of God. Remember what Jesus says:

>Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

But we humans are incapable of perfecting ourselves since we are fallen and sinful. Therefore, we must trust in God to perfect us, and we must allow God to shape our lives. So, to be perfect is to give oneself over to God. Teresa was particularly good at this, so I hope to learn things from her.

[Anonymous No.20210930]

>>20210914
Definitely doesn't mean drinking wine is bad.

[Anonymous No.20210968]

>>20210930
That's true, I was hasty

>>20210917
Of course all that follows but it doesn't really mean anything to me. I am somehow deaf to it. Even without God it seems as if all creatures should desire to be perfect. But in reality none of us do. I don't know how to move from what is to what should be.

I say that none of us even desire to be perfect, because, to me, a real sincere desire for perfection
which was continuus would swiftly result in a perfect state, and I think that very few of us reach that state. It's Church teaching that everybody sins every day.

I'm not trying to be troublesome or discouraging. I am just asking you to testify in more detail, not as an accuser but as someone requesting an act of charity.

[Anonymous No.20212232]

>>20205246
Great Orthodox theologians like St. Gregory Palamas aren't innovators like Aquinas and Byzantine art is theologically correct and consistent with Holy Tradition

[Anonymous No.20213070]

>>20210968
>Even without God it seems as if all creatures should desire to be perfect. But in reality none of us do. I don't know how to move from what is to what should be.

Repent, pray [actual contemplative prayer, not just vocal prayer], fast, frequent the sacraments - ask God to heal your desires.

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. But I see another law at work in my body,
warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin.
He thus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you." (Romans 7:14-25, 8:1-11)

And after a life of struggle...

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

[Anonymous No.20213106]

>>20209676
I don't feel compelled. You should instead feel compelled to learn more about pre-christian, indo-European Traditions. Do you honestly think the white Isle of the Blessed where Arthur is taken by virgins and laid to rest is from the bible? Or the draught of immortality (also known as soma, haoma, ambrosia, etc.)? Or a wizard with magical powers used by kings for material desires? Or the stone that consecrates the true king? Or the various trials of combat to make the knight ready for immortality? Or the lady in the lake raising her hand above the waters to give you your sword of power? All of these and many more are ancient symbols that come from pre-christian European myth and esoteric traditions (often myth and esoterica are intertwined for ancient Europeans) and also have analogs in other indo-European Traditions. You not knowing this is your problem, brainlet. It's a shame you're so ignorant of what is truly European, and only know about the writings of a lay semitic cult, thinking it represents ultimate truth because it stifled and subverted everything else before it.

[Anonymous No.20213159]

>>20209434
Christianity was already very democratic and plebian in character compared to older and more noble forms of spirituality favoured by traditional aristocracies. It is extremely subversive, owing without a doubt to its semitic origins. Any aristocratic associations come from European nobles who still retained pre-christian characteristics. The idea that the Bible, a lot of it or maybe most of it being written down by semi-literate lay people, is in any way aristocratic is absurd. We are all equal in the eyes of god, right fellow slaves?

[Anonymous No.20213172]

You know he's right. Admit it and stop lying to yourself, that way you can be a better person.

[Anonymous No.20213251]

>>20213106
Arthurian legend is explicitly Christian. I hardly imagine there were any Christianity featured heavily in pre-christian belief systems. If you were to say "Arthurian legend is based heavily on pre-christian myth" you'd probably be right. You know what, maybe it was even a pre-christian myth that was christianized by just making the characters Christian. No matter what, though, it's patently absurd to say it's pre-christian.

[Anonymous No.20214127]

>>20204299
>Interested in learn about Christian or Catholic mysticism, particularly if it's from the middle ages.
the Bible, obviously (if "zero priors" implies you didn't read it)
Meditations on the Tarot
Late Medieval Christian Mysticism (edited by Ray C. Petry)... haven't read this but would probably do if I wanted to explore said subject
>>20213172
Evola was pro-Catholic tho... I would recommend his book on Alchemy and the one on the Grail (although I haven't yet finished the latter...)

[Anonymous No.20214143]

>>20209689
stop being so rigid

[Anonymous No.20214225]

>>20206483
This.

[Anonymous No.20214235]

>>20206910
This is 100% missing St. John of the Cross.

[Anonymous No.20214383]

>>20214143
Stop being a fag. Vatican II has been a disaster. I hold with Saint Mel's father that it was the fucking jews.